Splinter Cell Master Tom Clancy

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We delve into the writer's involvement, contributions and effect on the videogame.

By Douglass C. Perry

Just like in war, in the videogame world, timing is everything. If you develop and publish an excellent game and deliver it at the right time, well, that's not only good planning, it's near genius. It's exactly what happened with the Xbox debut of Splinter Cell, a single-player military action title emphasizing stealth, strategy and realistic scenarios. In case you hadn't paid attention to the fanatic gamers, tracked the sales of that number-one selling game, or actually spent the time to play through the deep, gorgeous game, Ubi Soft struck gold with its interpretation of the difficult-to-master stealth game.

Splitting from its squad-based tactical shooters of the past, Ubi Soft's focus on the nitty-gritty details of modern-day military assassination, spying and top-level military ass-kicking depends on single-person play. Now that Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell has wowed gamers on the Xbox, the game is coming to other systems including PlayStation 2, GameCube and Game Boy Advance. It's already out on PC.

Standing behind the game's excellent vision are numerous talents: Ubi Soft's Montreal development studio, numerous producers, artists, programmers and the popular writer and author himself, Tom Clancy. While much of the videogame world first discovered Clancy's powerful stories of military strife, action and battle through the PC squad-based shooter Rainbow Six, the rest of the world was well-aware of his work as far as 1984 when then-US President Ronald Reagan called Clancy's first book The Hunt for Red October "The Perfect Yarn."

The former obscure Maryland insurance broker with a passion for naval history -- who has been known for some terse interviews and occasionally gruff conversations with the press -- has created an industry around his writings, fictional and non-fictional, books-turned movies, and his increasingly popular self-branded videogames. His videogame come-uppance, as it were, began in 1996, when he and former British Naval officer Doug Littljohns formed Red Storm Entertainment. Red Storm was fully acquired by Ubi Soft Entertainment in 2000, and has produced a series of top-notch games such as Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six (now a three-title series), Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, which has sold well over a million single-platform units, to name a few.

What's unique about the games is how realistic they are, but more surprisingly, how close Clancy himself works on the projects. "Tom Clancy is involved at every level of development," said Domitille Doat, producer of the PS2 version of Splinter Cell. "First, he must approve the concept. Then he checks regularly to see that the game is developing in a way that is consistent with his vision and brand. Finally, he sees the finished product and gives us the thumbs up. We view the Tom Clancy name on a game as a 'seal of quality.' The player will know that the concept and story stick together and are tight from the beginning to the end."

What set Splinter Cell apart from the other games, besides its unique gameplay, is that it's not based on a movie or book, but rather entirely on the ideas dreamed up by Ubi Soft's development team, which presented their ideas to him for discussion and, hopefully, approval. "He was so impressed that he took the ball and ran with it -- embellishing the original concept with Clancy-esque details that only he could provide," explained Doat.

Severe myopia limited Clancy's personal involvement in the armed forces (he had a brief stint in Loyola's ROTC program), but his dedication for all things military has put him in high regards with military strategists, admirals and Pentagon officials. His office walls are lined with war games, books on weapons, and government-produced maps. Clancy's wide grasp of military knowledge and plethora of sources sets his works aside from other military writers. They help to set his games apart from others as well. The level of accurate, up-to-date military detail in Splinter Cell easily matches that near-genius level of detail found in Konami's Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, and in many ways the game's focus on realism and proper set of tools outdoes Hideo Kojima's incredible efforts.

"You will never battle a dragon in a Tom Clancy game," says Doat. "Clancy is obsessed with being as realistic as possible and everything in our games-from the environments, to the weapons and gadgets-even the uniforms-has been heavily researched. It is a challenge for us as developers because we must balance the realism against the 'playability.'"

An impressive level of research and a focus on smart and cooperative play are fully integrated into each game. The environments, uniforms, weapons, tools, or situations depicted in the games are researched and made to be "real-life" accurate.

"When Clancy saw the nightvision/thermal goggles the first time, he thought we should change them because such goggles don't currently exist in covert ops. If we wanted to be realistic, Sam should have one pair of nightvision goggles and a separate pair of thermal goggles. But that didn't make for good gameplay.

"And -- of course -- Sam can only carry so much! After it was confirmed that dual-purpose goggles were indeed in development by some militaries, it was decided that we could leave them in the game. We appreciate Clancy's commitment to the realism. We think that's what sets the Clancy games apart."

Clancy takes pride that his games reward players for using brains over brawn, in addition to promoting a sense of national pride and ethics. For being military games focused on weaponry and military espionage, the Clancy games also generally discourage gratuitous violence, focusing on the the strength and dedication of the US's elite peace-keeping forces around the world.

If you haven't read his best-selling books or played his games, the dual lists are quite staggering. The book list includes The Hunt for Red October, Red Storm Rising, Patriot Games, The Cardinal of the Kremlin, Clear and Present Danger, The Sum of All Fears, Without Remorse, Submarine (non-fiction), Debt of Honor, Amored Cay (non-fiction), Fighter Wing (non-fiction), Executive Orders, Marine (non-fiction), SSN, Into the Storm with General Fred Franks (non-fiction), Airborne (non-fiction), Rainbow Six, Carrier (non-fiction), Every Man a Tiger with General Chuck Horner (non-fiction), and The Bear and the Dragon.

The game list is not quite as monstrous, but it's still impressive. It includes Rainbow Six, Rainbow Six 2: Rogue Spear, and the upcoming Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield. The Clancy franchise includes Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, and Sum of All Fears. Those are really just the blockbuster titles, the full list of games can be found here.

Make sure to return for more features on Splinter Cell features in the upcoming weeks.